Meedyah Morsels #200.
Yep, the year 1990 is 30 years old, and it ain't gonna get any younger, so time's a wastin'.
When 1989 rolled over to 1990, I thought we were in for some futuristic super-decade that would put the 80's to shame.
In some ways yes, in some ways no.
And all the "yes", ways weren't apparent to me at the time.
Now they are.
So, let's look back at this new/old decade to try to size up where we're going for the 2020's.
Movies.
IT (1990)
See here and here for the old reviews.
Of course, we got the 2 film remake in 2017 and 2019.
So, King adaptations are still going strong.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Old review here.
The Turtles are still plugging along.
They just did an animated crossover with Batman, two comic book crossovers with the Ghostbusters, and they added a 5th female Turtle to their roster called Jennika.
She's not named after a painter, because she was born human, and then transformed.
If they do a 3rd Ghostbusters, or another Batman, she'll be there.
So, yep, they're still a thing, and still expanding and evolving.
Darkman (1990)
Old review here.
Liam Neeson went on to do "The Phantom Menace", "Batman Begins", and the "Taken", trilogy.
Sam Raimi went on to do his Spider-Man trilogy that led the way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And Bruce Campbell was last seen in the "Ash vs Evil Dead", series, and as the host of "Ripley's Believe It or not".
And "Darkman", was the stepping stone towards all of that.
Who knew?
Well, a lot of people still don't seem to.
Dig it up, and give it another look.
It's a nice little flick.
And in hindsight, you can see the seeds being planted.
The Death of The Incredible Hulk (1990)
Old review here.
Updated review here.
Hulk may have died very unceremoniously in that old continuity, but he saved the goddamned universe in "Avengers: Endgame".
So, I think things worked out pretty damned well for Ol' Greenskin in the end.
And "Endgame", is part of the MCU.
Whose seeds were planted by "Spider-Man".
Whose seeds were planted by "Darkman".
Lotta secret gears were turning in 1990.
TV
The Flash (1990)
Old review here.
90's Flash came back for one last go-round, and a torch pass in "Crisis On Infinite Earths".
And then CW-Flash ran into DCEU Flash.
So, hey, who thought we'd be talking about that little one-season show 30 years later?
And if we did, who thought it would because the character is still popping up in a still functioning multi-verse?
Nobody.
Nobody but a genuine time-traveler could have even hinted at it.
Star Trek TNG (1989-1994)
Old review here.
Updated review here.
Picard's coming back in "Star Trek: Picard".
And he's bringing Riker, Troi, and Seven Of Nine with him.
Roseanne (1988-1997)
Old review here.
Still chugging along as "The Connors".
They killed Roseanne (the character) with an opioid overdose.
Timely.
And they can never bring her back.
Good!
Just 10 years ago, I wouldn't have believed I would see that as a good thing.
But, man, she's fallen off her rocker.
I have an old concert of hers where she's bashing on Dubyah Bush, and it's like she's a completely different person.
Conspiracy theory shit sunk its hooks into her.
That shit will turn you into a bigot.
She was spouting conspiracy crap on Joe Rogan long before she turned full MAGA.
MAGA hats are lined with tinfoil.
Good riddance.
And huzzah to Sarah Gilbert.
Darlene stands victorious!
Twin Peaks (1990-1991, 2017)
Covered that all here.
I said in that review I was going to attempt X-Files next.
Haha! Nope!
I got 3 episodes in, and couldn't take it anymore.
I dunno what it is that turns me off, the snail's pace, the bland score, but its like citronella to a mosquito with me.
I just cant get into it.
Twin Peaks, exact opposite.
Music, style, everything's firing on all cylinders.
Anyway, Lynch is hinting around he wants to do another season.
The George Carlin Renaissance (1990-1999)
See here.
He's still changing lives.
Type "George Carlin reaction", into Youtube, and you'll see the new generation getting woken up in their thinking as they watch for the first time.
You can see the change happening in real time.
It's fucking great.
Time/Life just put a new set out with the 14 HBO shows, and a bunch of other goodies, like Ed Sullivan appearances, and other rare stuff.
Hundred bucks though.
Yeowch.
Still.....*scratches beard thinking about it*
Anyway, the infomercial for that is the only infomercial ever made that I genuinely enjoy watching.
Well, Carol Burnett and Dean Martin Roasts are pretty good too.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
(1989-present)
See here.
Ashamed to say I haven't managed to catch the new ones.
Ah, well.
Tiny Toon Adventures (1990-1992)
See here.
Well, its been 30 years, so I'll fess up.
I was totally watching this during high school.
Like, just for me, no bullshit that it was on for younger relatives.
Admitting to it might have gotten me beaten up back then, because America sucks, but now I find out a whole generation of nerds was secret-watching this.
Fuck, nowadays, you have out-and-proud Bronies for chrissakes.
They take a lot of shit, but they don't seem to give a fuck.
Well, good on them then.
Wish I'd been brave.
Y'know, it's weird, you could admit to watching Simpsons, and/or Ren & Stimpy.
Those were the two you were allowed.
Later on, Beavis & Butt-Head.
Tiny Toons, not so much.
Y'know what? I bet everyone else was watching it too.
Anyway, this paved the way for Animaniacs, which came out after I graduated, so I had that one free and clear.
And now it's coming back with new episodes on Hulu.
And us 40-something weirdos are gonna force our teenage kids to watch it, I bet!
Books.
Jurassic Park (1990)
See here.
They're still cranking out the movies.
"Jurassic World 3", is on its way.
From the guy who wrote the shitty rejected script for Star Wars Episode 9.
Harry Hembooks!!! (1989-1996)
(Published 2012)
I was busy slogging away at these!
I've got a new story set in this universe coming out soon!
Music.
They Might Be Giants
Flood (1990)
Apollo 18 (1992)
See here.
Thank you, TMBG.
Gaming.
SNES (1990)
See here.
The internet.
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AOL was supposedly around in 1983, so they were around in 1990 before I got online around '95, '96 or so.
So, it counts.
See here for my arrival/rise in the internet.
Trips.
Florida (1990)
See here.
Nicely's Video (1987-2005)
See here.
Shady Dave's (1987-1995)
Weathervane (1987-2014-15?)
See here.
Bookland (198?-2000)
See here.
Treats.
Schwan man (1990-1993)
See here, here, and here.
So, there you go.
That was a sample of 1990.
A lot of it still going strong in 2020.
And stuff like flea markets and bookstores didn't quite make it.
And the internet has become so powerful, it's terrifying.
As has been pointed out in a million Facebook memes, 2050 is as far away in the future as 1990 is in the past now.
Maybe I'll check in again with another one of these for 1991.
Maybe.
We'll see.
Previously with MM-
Christmas loot 8, update! (MM #199)
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Happy 30th anniversary, 1990!!!!
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9 comments:
Watch the X-Files parody episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" before dumping X-Files entirely. It was a painfully inconsistent show and nobody who made it all the way through DOESN'T think the mytharc collapsed on itself, but watch THAT episode first (it's a parody that turns really brutally serious at the end and pulls it off wonderfully.) I'll swear by it--it's the X-Files equivalent of "City On The Edge Of Forever"!
Roseanne was pretty much an overexposed superstar right off the bat when her show first aired, right? In 1988? I guess 1990 was the National Anthem singing incident. I showed you the article she wrote that one time where she talked about how the network tried to wreck her show, right? Turn her into a yuppie and stuff? That was a horrifying read. Too bad she went bat shit insane recently. It's inexplicable, too--like she just did it to piss people off, then believed it. You know she was supposed to be the wife on "Married...With Children," right? And that show aired a year earlier than she did, and the MWC creator (who is black, actually!) said that he swore some of his jokes were being used on Roseanne's first season.
Also: I sort of always held the show at arm's length at best. It's laudable that she wanted to do a show about flyover country and blue collar people in the middle of Yuppie-O-Rama but I always really hated the way the show pandered to its audience. I REALLY hate that "Dan beats up the boyfriend" episode. And frankly the Conners reminded me of the hick asshole types that I knew in my own Midwestern youth--in real life, they really would be Trump/Dole/Gingrich/Bush/etc. supporters and would have none of the liberal attitudes that Roseanne occasionally took towards things.
1990 was "Super Mario Bros. 3" and me getting into gaming because I had an obsession with reading maps, and I bought the Nintendo Power SMB3 player's guide with the hand drawn maps and memorized them before ever playing the actual game! 1991, I bought the SNES.
1990 was also a time of totally disposable spandex dance pop music like we have now, all that MC Hammer and Paula Abdul and Vanilla Ice and hair metal and stuff that is actually more influential than people would like to admit. Which is not a compliment to any of it.
You also forgot the annoying California "Gleaming The Cube" skater punk culture that shot through the roof during that time, that stuff's kind of still with us. Remember "California Games"?
TMNT - Sam Rockwell is one of the punks in the original TMNT movie. I think.
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton caught his second wind and became a 90s superstar after having been a 70s star, by writing the most generic "Michael Crichton" novel he could. It's like Tim Burton getting his second wind by doing that dumb Alice in Wonderland adaptation. I don't hate JP the novel but it was very formulaic for him and had few surprises, other than stuff like a kid getting eaten at the beginning, which wouldn't make it into any Spielberg movie you could name.
TMBG - I didn't know that the squid on the "Apollo 18" cover was based off of a weird real-life image...
Re: "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". If I can find it, I'll check it out.
Roseanne- Yeah, there was pandering, but that's the best you were gonna get from a network sitcom. Cable wasn't what its become, and internet wasn't a thing. Maine has its fair share of bigot rednecks, but my family is liberal. People like the Connors exist. Course, even in the liberal families we've all got that aunt/uncle/grandpa at thanksgiving.
1990 was my freshman year of HS. I even had it in my notes to mention that, and still forgot. Oh well, it's in here now.
I left out skater culture, because my ex-best-friend was all wrapped up in that shit, and remembering anything to do with him still turns my stomach.
We were fellow nerds up until HS, then junior/senior years, he decided that he hated being a nerd, and wanted to be a cool kid, but his version of being a cool kid was to become a bully, and a sex predator.
I hope he's bleeding in a ditch in the moonlight somewhere, but he probably became a lawyer, and lived happily ever after with a sexy wife and 5 kids.
The pieces of garbage always end up happy.
TMNT- Shit, I should have had Sam Rockwell's career as one of the 2020 things that that movie spawned.
Well, again, it's in here now.
JP- Well, I thought they went back and killed the kid in "The Lost World".
That was a Speilberg too.
TMBG- Well, giant squids do fight whales deep in the ocean. No one's ever seen it though, but they've found sucker marks on the whales, and squid tentacles in their bellies.
I should probably add that the only X-Files I've seen since the 2002 ending of the original show was the piece of crap 2008 movie "I Want To Believe" which sucked completely. I did not see the "Event Series" or the new season after that, and none of that seemed to get all that much attention, just a flash of "they're back!" and then nothing. I really need to get with the times.
"Roseanne" - I'm thinking primarily of the annoying way the show had of dragging out cheap hissable villain characters for the Conner family to fight with and beat down by the end of the episode to loud cheers from the audience. I think I'm alone on this one. I really hated the kids though and I know I'm not alone on that!
My freshman year of HS was 1997. Leonardo DiCaprio and Radiohead are still with us, ska-core and the Spice Girls aren't. Don't know what else to say.
Your ex best friend sounds like a dildo, but you can always use social media to look him up! (don't)
I don't think Rockwell was really on the radar until "The Green Mile."
Never saw "The Lost World." I'm not really into JP at all.
The squid from the "Apollo 18" cover is a reference to this weird thing:
http://cognitiomatrix.com/apollo-8
The 2005 "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" movie wasn't very good, BTW. Very miscast and trite. I read the book for the first time recently, over the course of about four hours the day after Christmas after I had nothing to do at my parents' house and found the book nestled in between some VHS tapes of the 1981 miniseries.
"Roseanne"- Hissable villains. Well, one of her villains/bosses became a friend, so it wasn't all bad.
But, yeah. But, again, network sitcom. As good as you were gonna get.
Hating the kids. Okay, Becky I can see. She was made to be a bitch, and she was based on Rosanne's real daughter, so she was an act of artist revenge.
When I found that out, I liked Becky a whole lot more.
And if Tom Arnold had to put up with real-Becky, then he's a goddamned hero for not blowing his brains out.
Darlene was okay.
DJ just plain sucked, and still sucks.
Fuck DJ.
I did try to find that ex-buddy once.
Just out of curiousity to see where he is in life, I never woulda contacted his ass.
He's scrubbed his existence off the net really well.
God, I hope it's because he's in jail, or hiding in Alaska in a shack eating beans cooked over a zippo lighter.
JP sequels- You didn't miss anything.
Squid thing- Yeah, that is weird. Not supernaturally, like that side goes down the rabbit hole on. It's clearly a flaw in the film, but even then, WTF is that?
HHGTTG movie- Yeah, they trimmed a lot out to cram it into two hours.
A novel rambles, but the essence of the humor was Douglas Adams's rambling side tangents.
Maybe someday they can do it was a miniseries again with updated effects.
The novels are the best incarnation, but even the fourth and fifth books jumped the shark a bit.
"Roseanne" - Off the top of my head, some of the cartoon villains include the godawful next door blonde snotty neighbor woman, the dickhead boyfriend who was Laurie Metcalf's husband in real life (and a horrid actor), the blonde Thor looking guy (Little John from "Robin Hood Men in Tights") who Dan fist-fought at the bar, David's psycho mom who called Becky a whore, Becky's boss, Roseanne's boss...I lost track. Hating Becky is almost a criticism I have to take back because I'm sure lots of teenage girls have actually been that bad. I'm not sure how much I hate Darlene because she was supposed to be the smart one and lots of smart kids really do slack off and throw their lives away.
Again, it's because this was just about the only show doing "poor people" back then and taking them seriously, which is an honorable throwback to 1970s sitcom traditions.
God knows, maybe I'll rewatch the whole show again someday to be sure but I sort of don't feel like it (42 episodes into GOT now.)
Squid - It's probably some dust or something. But it is weird. It's popped up on lots of those silly "ancient aliens" type shows with talking heads.
HHGTTG - Too kiddie for me after reading the book.
Uhm....next time I'm at home I'll try to watch that 1981 miniseries, but I really doubt I'm going to go listen to the original radio plays. I don't know that I'm going to become a member of this particular cult. The book reads like a whimsical young British writer read Kurt Vonnegut's "The Sirens Of Titan" and decided to replace "despondent suicidal nihilism" with "Monty Python whimsy." You can certainly guess the time period it comes from with little difficulty. Douglas Adams sure did die young didn't he? And ooo they got someone else to write a sixth book for him, that sure always goes well doesn't it.
Jesus Christ, I forgot the kid from the chicken restaurant. On "Roseanne." That early episode where some 17 year old kid played by some awful actor who was probably 28 was whining at Roseanne about her attitude, then he needed Dan to help him with his car, but he wouldn't be nicer to her and fired her. THAT'S the worst "cheap villain" I can think of from that show. Guess who wrote the episode...
.....
.....
.....
..............give up?
JOSS FUCKING WHEDON!!!!!!!!!
OMFG!! Remember when that Stove Top ad with the guy in the turkey suit was on, and he tries to convince the family to eat Stove top with porkchops instead of turkey, and I made an annoying board meme out of going "Stove Top with chops!!!"?
I tried to find that ad, and couldn't, but there's a blog of the husband of the woman that made the turkey suit.
http://fireballtim.com/2012/09/20/kcl-mascot-costume-of-the-week-stove-top/
Stove Top with CHAAAAWWWPS!!!
Roseanne-
Is it worth a re-watch these days?
Nah.
Not unless you're writing a book on her, or something.
HHGTTG-
Read the first three, and stop.
Those are immortal classics.
4 & 5 are skipable.
Nobody has anything good to say about the 6th one done by the other guy.
Agreed with the Monty Python whimsy.
I came up in the 80's, so that vibe just felt normal.
Joss Fucking Whedon-
I wonder if he's still cancelled by the Twitter mob.
Probably.
I forgot that the Twitter people went after Whedon...
...speaking of mobs, ignore the Rian Johnson haters/Star Wars manbabies: "Knives Out" is a perfectly good little comedic murder mystery. Star Wars psychos are trying to ruin Johnson's career and screaming bloody murder at the movie just because they hate him. Ignore 'em, it's a good film.
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